Coffee Shop Lovers
by BitterPixieBro
Summary: In which Kaiba's father is dead set on arranging a marriage between Seto and the daughter of a business partner, but he instead falls in love with a boy at the coffee shop. Featuring Trans Girl Mokuba. PLEASE REVIEW, I WOULD BE SO HAPPY.
1. Chapter 1

**Since ever since, I have been in love with the boy who delievered our morning paper. It was never a question of sexuality or even romantic orientation, I found that I didn't care for such things. And I found myself in love with the idea of him. I was only a child, but I was in love. It was not for any reason other than the fact that he was the only other human I knew outside my immediate circle of acquaintences. He was the only person I knew that I didn't live with. He was a fantasy to me, just a wish I had to hold onto in the years of my youth.**

 **Eventually however, he moved away, stopped delivering our mail, and the paperboy that I had found myself so deeply in love with was cut out of my life for good. I never did see him again. It was for the best, things would not have worked out in my favour if I were to have kept this crush, this fondess, if my stepfather were ever to find out, I would have been done for, so this truly was for the best.**

 **Our story starts on a day like any other day in the city of Domino. The sun was beating down on the sidewalks, the sky dotted in clowds. The thrumming sound of cars echoed off the hot streets. We didn't live too close o the city, but we were just close enough to hear the buzz of Domino, to live in the light of the vibrant city I've called home since birth.**

 **On this day, my stepfather was entertaining guests, as he usually did, business was everything to him, business was what controlled his entire life, and he'd be damned if he would spend any given second doing anything that didn't benefit his work in some fashion. The guests he was entertaining, a business partner, a powerful one at that, and his three daughters. As his son it was my responsibility to entertain these girls while he and their father drank themselves sick.**

 **We spent most of the day out in the garden, the girls fawning over me, the youngest having been only twelve, the middle child fifteeen, and the eldest ninteen, a year older than myself. Despite how I acted toward them, indifferently and quiet, they seemed to like me. I wasn't quite sure what it was they found appealing. Yet they seemed to love me.**

 **They wound up staying the night, the girls stuck all in the same bedroom, having opted to do so themselves. I was separated from Mokuba, not allowed to communicate with her. My father did not approve of my having a relationship with anyone he did not like, he hated having her around, he hated that he had to adopt her when he did me. He hated her. He kept me from her as often as possible.**

 **It was something that I had to endure, I was sure that he wouldn't restrain from hurting her if I dared break his rules, he sure didn't keep from doing so to me.**

 **This is something that is unimportant at this time.**

 **It was that next morning, after breakfast, after those people had left our house, it was after all that when he told me his true intentions. He planned to have me marry one of those girls, whichever one, did not matter to him, he just wanted to marry me off to one of those girls for an advantage, to gain the upper hand against this man, just to gain a few more measly inches when it came to his business.**

 **He planned ot marry me to someone I could not care less for. To give me away so easily just to please a partner of his. I would not have it. I would never allow him to get away with this. I wasn't his puppet despite how he treated me like such.**

 **With days past those girls kept coming more and more, their father and my own becoming quite chummy with one another.**

 **It seemed to be the eldest that I was left alone with more often than not. I believed it was safe to assume that it was she who my father had decided upon, or had it been hers? I began to hate this girl for no reason other than the fact that I was being paired up with her against my will.**

 **Eventually, she grew bored of visiting the house, requested that she started seeing me out on town, in the city. Her father hadn't liked the idea at all, it was too dangerous, but somehow she was able to convince him to allow it. It seemed that she had more power over her father than I did, hell, she had more power over my stepfather than I did.**

 **We met on the town several times, never doing more than visiting the local coffee shop. She seemed to have quite the love for that one place. It seemed that way to me, and I could see why. It was not for the drinks, or for the food, not for the atmosphere or the ambience, no, it wasn't any of these things. In fact, it seemed to be for the waiter she continued ot stare at. A teenager, who seemed to be somewhere around our ages, blond hair, honey eyes, his features were soft and yet also strong. He was a sight to see, I could understand why I found her staring at him so often, I too found myself entranced by his looks.**

 **He was the waiter who served us everyday that we came in. The smile he would give us was rather honest, warm and kind, it left me smiling myself, something I had long forgotten how to do. He reminded me of the paperboy in some ways. Just a dream, a hope, something I could never achieve. Yet the girl seemed to think differently.**

 **She brought it up one day in that cafe, a sly smile pressed over her delicate features, it wasn't fitting for her, but who was I to judge?**

 **She spoke in her same voice, this time tinted with a bit of a mischevious air.**

" _ **Tell me something Seto…, are you by any chance interested in the waiter?"**_

 **I near spit out my drink at her question, but as I was, I had been raised to keep myself poised and emotionless, I dared not show my shock to her. I raised my response soon after.**

" _ **I could ask the same question of you."**_

 **She gave a rather high pitched giggle, catching the eyes of a few other patrons.**

" _ **I only think he's cute, you look at him in a much more longing manner, care to elaborate?"**_

 **She wasn't near as oblivious as I had thought her to be. She seemed to catch on to me fairly quickly. I replied as smoothly as I could muster, my words worried, but tone even.**

" _ **It seems that you've already figured out, doesn't it? The only question here, is what you'll do next."**_

 **She rolled her eyes, spoke.**

" _ **It wouldn't be fitting for either of us if I were to tell, not our parents at least."**_

 **She then waved the waiter over. Fear held onto me as he approached. I already knew what she had in mind. He stopped at out table, note pad in hand.**

" _ **Is there anything I can help you with?"**_

 **This wasn't the first time I had heard his voice, but it was still just as nice, it helped bring me down from a bit of my panic, only to have said panic rise tenfold.**

" _ **Yes actually. My associate here thinks you're really very attractive."**_

 __ **He laughed at that, he actually fucking laughed. As if my self esteem hadn't taken enough of a hit, but then he spoke.**

" _ **Well your associate is pretty cute himself."**_


	2. Chapter 2

**We did not cease going to that shop, not even after she voiced how it insulted she had felt. She had believed that I truly wished to court her, but of course, after that, she was convinced of the lie my stepfather had spread. However, she did not mind pretending. She was aware of how that man never allowed me to leave our home, everyone who knew us was. She promised to lend her help, if not for my benefit, then only to prove she was a good person.**

 **She would sit across from me, pretend to be interested in case someone was watching, and the waiter, Jounouchi Katusya I learned his name was, would visit us, more so than usual, ask if we needed anything, would then proceed to flirt with me. As was our near daily ritual. He seemed to work every day of the week, for whatever reason was beyond me. He must have come from a rather poor background, that I could understand.**

 **He didn't quite know who I was, so I merely allowed him to know my first name, nothing more, nothing less. He adressed me in that way, it was rather personal, but I prefered it to be this way. I prefered him to see me more as a regular human being, than as what my family was made out to be by the media.**

 **Our flirtations turned into something more, he asked me for my number, something I wasn't able to supply to him, Gozaburro did not want me having nay form of contact with the outside world, that is until the girl, Akane, decided to complain about it. She said that she was appalled that she had no way of contacting me outside of our get togethers, and to please her and her father, Gozaburro supplied me with a phone.**

 **This girl was quickly becoming one of my closest friends. My only friend. Aside from Mokuba and Isono.**

 **The next time we went out, I exchanged numbers with Katsuya, put his number under Akane's name. She had no issue with not being able to contact me, she didn't much care for it.**

 **We were texting every night, exchaning information about ourselves, going off about the things we loved. And out of those things, it seemed that Duel Monsters was one of the major things we had in common. He spoke of his friends and how they would all play for fun together, and would occaisionally attempt to convince me to join them, he said he wanted to introduce me to his friends, to show me off.**

 **This of course was something I couldn't do without seeming suspicious. Not unless I could get Akane to agree to it. She absolutely hated the card game. I couldn't blame her, it seemed to me that everyone who surounded me hated the game.**

 **It took time, but eventually, he did arrange something so that I could become acquainted with his friends.**

 **He had them visit the cafe, on a day that would fit into our schedule, I was not completely certain what h ehad told them, but he had told them something to get the lot of them out there. They all seemed rather excited to meet me. They sat down with the two of us, introduced themselves. There were quite a few of them, more people than I could ever imagin making friends with. Hiroto Honda, Mazaki Anzu, Muto Yugi, Otogi Ryuji, Bakura Ryou, and Kawai Shizuka, who happened ot be Katsuya's younger sister.**

 **They were all so friendly, so kind, more so than most I usually associated with. We all talked Duel Monsters, everyone there seemed to love the card game industry, despite how two-dimensional the game was.**

 **The end of that day came a lot quicker than that of other days. Time sure did fly when I was having fun. I said my goodbyes to Katsuya and friends, took Akane home, returned to Gozaburro.**

 **When I did get home, my stepfather was not pleased, he was undoutbedly pissed that I had taken so long, because I was not to be out after dark. I apologised profusely, told him that I had ot take Akane home. At the mention of her name, the old man seemed to calm down, waved me off, said if I were to be late again, I would not escape a beating.**

 **The man scared me, no doubt for it, he was horrifying. I had no means of escaping him, not while he still had Mokuba. I was old enough now to move out, but I could not leave without my little sister. I would not leave without her.**

 **When Gozaburro retreated to his quarters, most certainly to drink himself numb once more, I cautiously made my way to Mokuba's room. I did miss her. I woudl sometimes sneak to see her, when I was most certain that Gozaburro was gone for the evening, and when I was certain that the staff would be kind to us. Most did not favour my stepfather, but those who did, often got us into quite a bit of trouble.**

 **Mokuba usually spent her days locked up in her bedroom, for whatever reason, I did not know of. I had assumed that she prefered it in there, as far away from Gozaburro as she could get. But tonight, I was told otherwise.**

 **When I found my sister, she was nursing a bruise on her face, was as dark and as purple as what usually stained my body. Her face was mostly red,from crying I had assumed. I rushed to her side when I saw this scene, concerned and scared for the sister I loved.**

 **I moved her hand from the bruise over her eye. She jumped at the contact, scared of me. Me. It did hurt, but I could understand, at first, I had been scared of everything, everyone, she had every right to be afraid, someone had done this to her, and I was certain that I knew who.**

" _ **Gozaburro."**_

 **She only offered a nod, did not speak to me. She still must have bene in shock. I could tell it had been sometime before the wound had been inflicted for the mere fact that the bruise was already formed, and I didn't doubt that this wasn't the only one.**

 __ **I did what I could for her, rubbed her back, spoke to her in a soft,** _ **"I wont let him hurt you"**_ **and, "** _ **he wont get away with this."**_

 _ **A text came in from Katsuya.**_

" _ **When do you want to meet up next?"**_


	3. Chapter 3

" _ **When do you want to meet up next?"**_

 **That was his latest text. It only took me a few moments to decide when exactly I'd like to meet up with him. Only a few moments to decide that my sister could not stay here, and I could no longer be separated from her. It wasn't a difficult decision, not by any means. I hated this place, I had always wanted to leave, I had only remained to benefit my sister, and here we were now, my sister hurt and upset, myself, just as upset, just as hurt, but in a much different manner.**

 **I sent my reply soon after. It was more a plea than a request, a hope that he would have us, a hope that he wouldn't dare turn us away. We were close, he should want to help, shouldn't he?**

" _ **How do you feel about tonight?"**_

 **I knew it was stupid of me to do something so rash without much thought, but I would not, could not, allow my little sister to remain in a house that treated her in such a manner. We would leave before the night was over, I'd enlist the help of Isono, one of my fathers men, one who seemed to be more on our side than his. We'd pack our things and we'd run.**

" _ **Tonight is good."**_

 **He probably hadn't a clue what I'd ask of him, but it was far too late for me to turn back now, I had already asked him, I couldn't just cancel.**

 **I left my sister where she was, told her to pack everything she couldn't live without. Only the necessities. I then went to find Isono, asked him to leave the gates open a crack, I did not tell him what for, he must have made his own assumptions for he didn't ask a single question, merely informed that he'd turn of the security system as well.**

 **I knew that I could have counted on him. I knew that he was worth my trust, he had always been.**

 **Afterwards, I spent my time in packing things for myself, mainly clothes, money as well, whatever I could find laying about in our house. Luckily enough for myself, Gozaburro had a habit of leaving his wallet out on the kitchen counter. I didn't bother with his credit cards, those could get me into trouble, but I did take the cash he had on hand.**

 **I would give the money to Katsuya, in hopes that he'd take us in. In hopes he'd find anyone to take us in. I didn't mind staying with any of his friends, so long as it wasn't here. So long as my sister would be treated properly, as she deserved.**

 **We fled at midnight, Isono watching over, ensuring that nobody else saw us leave. We couldn't have that, we couldn't risk being caught, if we were to be, Gozaburro would most certainly find some horrible way to punish us for our attempts. We got past the gate, it seemed to have been all too easy, it left me filling with dread. Surely something worse was to come.**

 **I arranged for Katsuya to pick us up on the edge of town. He was surprised to see that I had company, although every moment we spent together, someone else had been there.**

" _ **Who's that?"**_

 **He rose a brow in question as he got out of his car, he meant to open the door for us. What a gentleman.**

" _ **She's my sister."**_

 **A smile spread over his face, he held a hand out to her, a friendly gesture.**

" _ **Well then, it's a pleasure to meet you."**_

 **He had heard of her before, I spoke of her often when we had the time. He was a sweet guy.**

 **Mokuba avoided shaking his hand, something I didn't blame her for. This was her first time meeting him. How could she know that he could be trusted? She kept her head down, got into the car.**

 **Katsuya's smile faded, he seemed a bit upset to be brushed off liek he had been.**

" _ **She's scared, she doesn't know you."**_

 **It wasn't his fault that she was acting this way, it was Gozaburro. I would fill him in on that later, when we reached his home.**

" _ **So you wanna tell me what's going on now?"**_

 **Or now.**

" _ **Or why your sisters sportin' a black eye?"**_

 **Definitely now. I couldn't have him thinking that I would dare touch her in such a way. That I would ever dare hurt my baby sister.**

 **So I told him. About Gozaburro, how he had done this to her, about the things he had done in the past. It was hard to do, hard to force out, I felt as though I was choking. Allowing him to know all of this about our home life was painful, but I was used to people knowing, of people judging. It was normal for me.**

 **I told him how Gozaburro had promised not to lay a finger on Mokuba, and how he had broken that promise, how it had been the last straw, how we couldn't stay there anymore.**

 **He seemed to understand where I was coming from. Understood that there was no way I could leave my sister in such a horrible environment, he agreed to let us stay with him, so long as I would take up a job, that we couldn't just freeload off of him. Of course this was understandable. I wouldn't want to keep me either if I wasn't going to help out.**

 **We got into the car.**

 **I hadn't even realised what kindof financial situation he had been in. He lived in the slums with his father, they both worked fulltime jobs and still they couldn't move. With the two of us fresh out of highschool, we couldn't quite get well paying jobs, but with my transcripts, I should have been able to get something better than what he had. Isono had advised me to take them from my fathers safe, it had been a smart move. I could easily get a job with this.**

 **This is all beside the point.**

 **We entered Katsuya's home, a run down apartment. It had only three bedrooms, I offered to sleep on the couch. Katsuya insisted that I share the guest bedroom with my sister instead, but I knew she needed her privacy, she was a growing girl, a teen now, she needed her space. I still opted for the couch. They both respected my wishes.**

 **Katsuya brought out a spare blanket, and a pillow. They both smelled of him. It was safe to assume he had gotten the both of them from his bedroom.**

 **Mokuba retreated to her new bedroom, and I tried to get comfortable on that rickety couch. It had been a long day, I had done so much, I had been so much more tired than I believed, I fell asleep.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Finding a job was easy enough, places were more than willing to hire me. My last name went a long way. I was hired as a manager at a local retail store, despite my lack of experience. The job so far wasn't very hard. I found it simple, managing over a few simpleminded people wasn't very hard. Most of them were older than I was, most were upset that they instead hired someone rather than dealt out a promotion. It wasn't as though any of these fools were qualified to work in my position, they weren't trained for this as I was. I was meant to work above thousands of people, to manage a large corporation, this was nothing in comparision.**

 **Katsuya was rather impressed that I had gotten a job so quickly, said that he could never have managed it.**

 **The three of us worked in the business area of the city, we'd carpool, save money and gas. There wasn't a reason we needed to take any other form of transportation when we all worked so closely together.**

 **I worked from seven to six, hours were spent in that store, working for an hourly wage, I was paid just a bit above the minimum. It wasn't all that much, but every bit counted, especially in a household that wasn't overflowing with money. I no longer held it in me to understand how one could survive in such a home, but I knew there were those out there, I was one of them now. Now that I no longer lived under Gozaburro's reign.**

 **Eventually as the days went on, Katsuya tried convincing me to sleep elsewhere, concerned that the couch would hurt my back to irrepairable levels. He said if I wouldn't share a room with my sister, then I could share his. I didn't much like the idea. I felt that would put pressure on our relationship, I opted for the couch once more.**

 **Eventually, our relationship did develope past flirtations and innuendos. He started kissing me every morning before we went out separate ways for work, every night before we went to bed. It was slow at first, we were timid, shy, but eventually we grew used to eachother, eventually we found there was nothing to be embarassed about.**

 **Mokuba eventually opened up ot him as well. She had the three of us to take care of her. Katsuya, the elder Jounouchi, and myself. She found herself in a warm home environemnt. I found myself happy for this, she deserved to have only the best. Funny how the life of the rich and famous wasn't the best she could have, but that of the poor and fameless.**

 **Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and eventually we had been separated from that man and his cruelties for half a year. We had been on our own, Gozaburro hadn't come after us, despite my being his only heir. He must have been using the "tragedy" of our disappearnce as some sort of ploy for sympathy, I've seen him do similar in the past. He didn't want to come looking for us, he knew we harboured no real threat. He knew that we were avoiding confrontation, that's why we left after all. What reason more would we have to report his actions, with no proof his lawyers would win, despite the number of witnesses we had, how many of them would come out and say we were anyway? How much would he pay people off? How many would accept these bribes? Gozaburro was an impassible obstacle in our lives, the best was to avoid him till the day he died.**

 **Life seemed to return to a state of equilibrium, there were struggles, yes, but there was also peace. We had to worry about money everyday, had to worry about the expenses of Mokuba's schooling, which I covered, the expenses of food, rent, water, heat, everything. It was stressful, but we no longer had to worry about Gozaburro, and that I was thankful for.**

 **One of those days, I wasn't quite sure which, I pulled Katsuya aside, aked him if he resented me for bringing this on him. It was a perfectly rational question, which recieved a completely irrational answer.**

" _ **I've never been happier."**_

 **This answer was irrational for the fact that there was nothing we were doing that could have made him happy, he had to work harder for us, came home to a noisy mess of an apartment, had to stay out later just so we could drive home together, had to spend more money just to help feed us. I couldn't see what made him happy, but something was. Something made him smile as widely and as warmly as he did, and for that reason, I too was happy. Despite all of our hardships.**

 **My only response to his words was to leave a kiss on his cheek, a thank you.**

 **Our days were spent in similar fashions to this, my questions chock full of insecurities and his answers filled with reassurance, they were a daily occurance. He always seemed to ease my anxieties, to help me feel better, to allieviate my stresses, I wish that I could have done the same for him. I wish that I could have gotten rid of what plagued his mind, but it seemed to me that he was jsut doomed to be as stressed as he was.**

 **But I've never been happier.**


End file.
